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Kit Carson
|placeofbirth= Madison County, Kentucky, USA |placeofdeath= Fort Lyon, Colorado, USA |placeofburial= Taos, New Mexico, USA |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |image= |caption= Kit Carson |allegiance= United States of America Union |branch= Union Army |serviceyears= |rank= |commands= |unit= |battles= Mexican-American War *Battle of San Pasqual *Taos Massacre Apache Wars *Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon American Civil War *Battle of Valverde Navajo Wars Texas-Indian Wars *First Battle of Adobe Walls |awards= |laterwork= |place of birth = Madison County, kentucky|nickname = Kit|birth name = Chistopher Houston Carson|participations = Mexican-American War}} Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at an early age and became a trapper in the West. He gained notoriety for his role as John C. Fremont's guide in the American West. Carson also played a minor role in California during the 1846-48 Mexican-American War. Later he became a rancher in New Mexico. During the American Civil War, he helped organize the New Mexico volunteer infantry for the Union. When the Navajos tried to take advantage of the military slack caused by the outbreak of the Civil War, the US government sent Colonel Kit Carson to settle the uprising. His mission was to gather the Navajo together and move them to Fort Sumner on the Bosque Redondo Reservation. When the Indians refused to move and hid in the Canyon de Chelly, he began a campaign of economic warfare, destroying crops, lifestock and villages. By destroying their food supplies, eventually he convinced the Navajos that going to the reservation was the only way to survive. By 1864, about 8000 Navajo had surrendered to the U.S. Army, while another 8000 hid in the back country. Kit Carson finally went home to his family. After the Civil War, Carson moved to Colorado, where he died."Kit Carson", The West, PBS-WETACarter, Dunlay, Sides, Simmons, Sabin Early life Born in Madison County, Kentucky, near the city of Richmond, in 1811 Carson moved at the age of one year with his parents and siblings to a rural area near Franklin, Missouri."In the spring of 1811, Lindsey Carson, with his wife and nine children by ox team and wagon from Madison County, Kentucky, to the new Boone's Lick District of the even newer American Territory of Louisiana ... The Carsons and their company of other southerners settled in what is now Howard County, along the Missouri River about 170 miles west of St. Louis.. this frontier arose the stockades of Fort Hempstead, Fort Cooper, and Fort Kincaid. The name of Lindsey Carson appears upon the roll of old Fort Hempstead and the annals of old Fort Cooper", Sabin, E., Kit Carson Days, p. 6 Carson's father, Lindsey Carson, was a farmer of Scots-Irish descent, who had fought in the Revolutionary War under General Wade Hampton. There were a total of 15 Carson children: five by Lindsey Carson's first wife, and ten by Kit's mother, Rebecca Robinson. Kit was the eleventh child in the family.There is controversy about how many children were in the Carson family, and what Kit’s birth order was: "In 1793 his first wife died, leaving him with 5 children and in 1796 he married Rebecca Robinson, who bore him ten more, including Christopher, the sixth". T. Dunlay Kit Carson and the Indians, p. 26-7. Compare that statement with the following: "The elder Carson had an enormous family-five children by his first wife and ten by Kit's mother, Rebecca Robinson. Of those fifteen children, Kit was the eleventh in line." H. Sides Blood and Thunder, p. 8. This article has used Hampton Sides version, as there is no decisive reasoning to resolve the conflict, and his was the original version used for this article. There remains some controversy about which version is correct. The Carson family settled on a tract of land owned by the sons of Daniel Boone, who had purchased the land from the Spanish prior to the Louisiana Purchase. The Boone and Carson families became good friends, working, socializing, and intermarrying. Carson was eight years old when his father was killed by a falling tree while clearing land. Lindsey Carson's death reduced the Carson family to a desperate poverty, forcing young Kit to drop out of school to work on the family farm, as well as engage in hunting. At age 14, Kit was apprenticed to a saddlemaker (Workman's Saddleshop) in the settlement of Franklin, Missouri. Franklin was situated at the eastern end of the Santa Fe Trail, which had opened two years earlier. Many of the clientele at the saddleshop were trappers and traders, from whom Kit heard stirring tales of the Far West. Carson is reported to have found work in the saddle shop suffocating: he once stated "the business did not suit me, and I concluded to leave". His master may have agreed with his leaving since he offered the odd amount of 1 cent for his return and waited a month to post the notice in the local newspaper. At sixteen, Carson secretly signed on with a large merchant caravan heading to Santa Fe. His job was to tend the horses, mules, and oxen. During the winter of 1826-1827 he stayed with Matthew Kinkead, a trapper and explorer, in Taos, New Mexico, then known as the capital of the fur trade in the Southwest. Kinkead had been a friend of Carson's father in Missouri, and he taught Carson the skills of a trapper. Carson also began learning the necessary languages. Eventually he became fluent in Spanish, Navajo, Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute.Brooke Cleary, "Kit Carson: A Hero in Fact and Fiction", adapted from David Fridtjof Halaas, "Kit Carson, Likely Hero", Colorado History NOW, May 1999, Colorado Historical Society, accessed 24 Jan 2010 The trapper years (1829-40) After gaining experience along the Santa Fe Trail and in Mexico, Carson signed on with a trapping party of forty men, led by Ewing Young in the Spring of 1829. This was Carson's first official expedition as a trapper. The journey took the band into unexplored Apache country along the Gila River. Ewing's group was approached and attacked by Apache natives. It was during this encounter that Carson shot and killed one of the attacking Apache, the first time he killed a man. At the age of 25, in the summer of 1835, Carson attended an annual mountain man rendezvous, which was held along the Green River in southwestern Wyoming. He became interested in an Arapaho woman whose name, Waa-Nibe, is approximated in English as "Singing Grass"H. Sides, Blood and Thunder, p. 30. Her tribe was camped nearby the rendezvous. Singing Grass is said to have been popular at the rendezvous and also to have caught the attention of a French-Canadian trapper, Joseph Chouinard. When Singing Grass chose Carson over Chouinard, the rejected suitor became belligerent. Chouinard is reported to have thrown a fit, disrupting the camp to the point where Carson could no longer tolerate the situation. Words were exchanged, and Carson and Chouinard charged each other on horses while brandishing their weapons. Using a pistol, Carson blew off Chouinard's thumb. His opponent barely missed killing Carson with his rifle shot; it grazed below his left ear and scorched his eye and hair. Carson said that the fact that Chouinard's horse shied probably saved him, as Chouinard was a splendid shot. Controversy regarding Chouinard's fate continues. The duel with Chouinard is said to have made Carson famous among the mountain men but was also considered uncharacteristic of him.One version has it that Chouinard survived; another that Carson killed him with a second shot; and a third that Chouinard may have died of an infection caused by his wounds. M. Simmons, P. 7-17; T. Dunlay 69-73; H. Sides, p. 29-31. Carson considered his years as a trapper to be "the happiest days of my life." Accompanied by Singing Grass, he worked with the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as the renowned frontiersman Jim Bridger, trapping beaver along the Yellowstone, Powder, and Big Horn rivers. They trapped throughout what is now Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Carson's first child, a daughter named Adeline, was born in 1837. Singing Grass gave birth to a second daughter but developed a fever shortly after the birth, and died sometime between 1838-40.A Carson family history website gives the year of the death of Singing Grass as 1838. H. Sides gives the year as 1839, and Dunlay gives the year as sometime between 1839-40, and possibly occurring at Bent's Fort. At this time, the nation was undergoing a severe depression (see Panic of 1837). The fur industry was undermined by changing fashion styles: a new demand for silk hats replaced the demand for beaver fur. Also, the trapping industry had devastated the beaver population. This combination of facts ended the need for trappers. Carson said, "Beaver was getting scarce, it became necessary to try our hand at something else."Sides, H., Blood and Thunder, p. 33 He attended the last mountain man rendezvous, held in the summer of 1840 (again at Ft. Bridger near the Green River) and moved on to Bent's Fort, finding employment as a hunter. Carson married a Cheyenne woman, "Making-Our-Road",After Carson, Making Our Road married three other times: twice to Native Americans and the third to Charles Rath, with whom she had a daughter. Her daughter told interviewers that the name "Making Our Road" in Cheyenne meant "laying down the law", a phrase much in keeping with her stern personality. M. Simmons, Kit Carson and His Three Wives, p. 35-6 in 1841. She left him only a short time later to follow her tribe's migration. By 1842 Carson met and became engaged to the daughter of a prominent Taos family: Josefa Jaramillo. After receiving instruction from Padre Antonio José Martínez, he was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1842. At 34, Carson married his third wife, 14-year-old Josefa, on February 6, 1843. They had eight children together, the descendants of whom remain in the Arkansas Valley of Colorado. Guide with Fremont (1842-1846) Carson decided early in 1842 to return to Missouri, taking his daughter Adeline to live with relatives near Carson's former home of Franklin, to provide her with an education. That summer he met John C. Frémont on a Missouri River steamboat. Frémont was preparing to lead his first expedition and was looking for a guide to take him to South Pass on the Continental Divide. As the two men became acquainted, Carson offered his services, as he had spent much time in the area. The five-month journey, made with 25 men, was a success, and Fremont's report was published by Congress. His report "touched off a wave of wagon caravans filled with hopeful emigrants" heading West. Frémont's success in the first expedition led to his second expedition, undertaken in the summer of 1843. He proposed to map and describe the second half of the Oregon Trail, from South Pass to the Columbia River. Due to Carson's proven skills as a guide, Fremont invited him to join the second expedition. They traveled along the Great Salt Lake into Oregon. They determined that all the land in the Great Basin (centered on modern-day Nevada) was land-locked, which contributed greatly to the understanding of North American geography at the time. Farther west, they came within sight of Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Hood. One goal of the expedition had been to locate the Buenaventura River, what was believed to be a major east-west river connecting the Great Lakes with the Pacific Ocean. Though its existence was accepted as scientific fact at the time, it was not to be found. Frémont's second expedition established that the river was a fable. The second expedition became snowbound in the Sierra Nevadas that winter. Carson's wilderness skills averted mass starvation. Food was so scarce that their mules "ate one another's tails and the leather of the pack saddles.""Kit Carson: Biography and Much More", Answers.com The expedition moved south into the Mojave Desert, enduring attacks by Natives, who killed one man. When the expedition ventured into California, they crossed into Mexican territory. The threat of military intervention by that country sent Fremont's expedition southeast, into Nevada, to a watering hole known as Las Vegas. The party traveled on to Bent's Fort. By August 1844 they returned to Washington, over a year after their departure. Congress published Fremont's report on his expedition in 1845. It added to the national reputations of the two frontiersmen. Along the route, Frémont and party came across a Mexican man and a boy who were survivors of an ambush by a band of Natives. They had killed two men, staked two women to the ground and mutilated them, and stolen 30 horses. Carson and fellow mountain man Alex Godey took pity on the two survivors. They tracked the Native band for two days, and upon locating them, rushed into their encampment. They killed two Native Americans, scattered the rest, and returned to the Mexicans with the horses. :"More than any other single factor or incident, Mojave Desert incident from Frémont's second expedition report is where the Kit Carson legend was born....."Sides, Blood and Thunder, pp. 61-4 On June 1, 1845, John Frémont and 55 men left St. Louis, with Carson as guide, on the third expedition. The stated goal was to "map the source of the Arkansas River", on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. But upon reaching the Arkansas, Frémont suddenly made a hasty trail straight to California, without explanation. Arriving in the Sacramento Valley in early winter 1846, he sought to stir up patriotic enthusiasm among the United States immigrants there. He promised that if war with Mexico started, his military force would "be there to protect them." Frémont nearly provoked a battle with Mexican General José Castro near Monterey, Caliifornia. His troops so outnumbered the US expedition that they could likely have destroyed it. Frémont fled Mexican-controlled California, and went north to Oregon, making camp at Klamath Lake. On the night of May 9, 1846, Frémont received a courier, Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie, bringing messages from President James Polk. Reviewing the messages, Frémont neglected the customary measure of posting a watchman for the camp. The neglect of this action is said to have been troubling to Carson, yet he had "apprehended no danger".This account is described in Dunlay p. 115, and Sides p. 78. Later that night Carson was awakened by the sound of a thump. Jumping up, he saw his friend and fellow trapper Basil Lajeunesse sprawled in blood. He sounded an alarm and immediately the camp realized they were under attack by Native Americans, estimated to be several dozen in number. By the time the assailants were beaten off, two other members of Frémont's group were dead. The one dead attacker was judged to be a Klamath Lake Native. Frémont's group fell into "an angry gloom." Carson was furious and smashed the dead warrior's face into a pulp.Fremont, Memoirs, p. 492. To avenge the deaths, Frémont attacked a Klamath Tribe fishing village named Dokdokwas, that most likely had nothing to do with the attack, at the junction of the Williamson River and Klamath Lake, on May 10, 1846. Accounts by scholars vary, but they agree that the attack completely destroyed the village structures; Sides reports the expedition killed women and children as well as warriors.H. Sides reports the massacre included women and children. Dunlay reports that Carson said, "I directed their houses to be set on fire" and "We gave them something to remember...the women and children we did not interfere with." (Dunlay, p.117) Later that day, Carson was nearly killed by a Klamath warrior when his gun misfired as the warrior drew a poison arrow. Frémont trampled the warrior with his horse and saved himself. :"The tragedy of Dokdokwas is deepened by the fact that most scholars now agree that Frémont and Carson, in their blind vindictiveness, probably chose the wrong tribe to lash out against: In all likelihood the band of native Americans that had killed three men were from the neighboring Modocs....The Klamaths were culturally related to the Modocs, but the two tribes were bitter enemies."Sides, Blood and Thunder, p. 87 Turning south from Klamath Lake, Frémont led his expedition back down the Sacramento Valley, and promoted the Bear Flag Revolt, an insurrection of United States immigrant settlers. He took charge of it once it had adequately developed. When a group of Mexicans murdered two American rebels, Frémont imprisoned José de los Santos Berreyesa, the alcalde, or mayor of Sonoma, two other Berreyesa brothers, and others he believed were involved. On June 28, 1846, Berreyesa's father, José de los Reyes Berreyesa, an elderly man, crossed the San Francisco Bay and landed near San Quentin with two cousins, twin sons of Francisco de Haro, who were 19 years old, to visit his own sons in jail. Frémont first ordered some of the settlers who had just participated in the Bear Flag Revolt to execute the three. The settlers refused, telling Fremont that they knew them and were friends. Frémont then ordered Carson and two others to execute the three Californios.Carson at first asked Fremont if he should take the men prisoner. Frémont's plan was otherwise: "I have no use for prisoners, do your duty," was the response. When Carson hesitated Frémont yelled, "Mr. Carson, your duty," to which Carson then complied. (Hampton Sides. Blood And Thunder, New York; Anchor Books. 2007.) Afterwards the soldier robbed them of their belonging and left them naked along the shore. Later, Carson told Jasper O'Farrell that he regretted killing the men, but that the act was only one such that Frémont ordered him to commit.Eldredge, Zoeth Skinner. The Beginnings of San Francisco, 1912. "Appendix D: The Murder of Berreyesa and the De Haros." Hosted at SFGenealogy. Retrieved on August 17, 2009. Mexican American War service Frémont's California Battalion next moved south to the Mexican provincial capital of Monterey, where they met US Commodore Robert Stockton in mid-July 1846. Stockton had sailed into harbor with two American warships and laid claim to Monterey for the United States. Learning that the war with Mexico was underway, Stockton made plans to capture Los Angeles and San Diego and proceed on to Mexico City. He joined forces with Frémont, and made Carson a lieutenant, thus initiating Carson's military career. Frémont's unit arrived in San Diego on one of Stockton's ships on July 29, 1846, and took over the town without resistance. Stockton, on a separate warship, claimed Santa Barbara a few days later. (See Mission Santa Barbara and Presidio of Santa Barbara). Meeting up and joining forces in San Diego, the men marched to Los Angeles and claimed the town without any challenge. On August 17, 1846, Stockton declared California to be United States territory. The following day, August 18, Stephen W. Kearny rode into Santa Fe, New Mexico with his Army of the West and declared the New Mexican territory conquered. Stockton and Frémont were eager to announce the conquest of California to President Polk. They asked Carson to carry their correspondence overland to the President. Carson accepted the mission, and pledged to cross the continent within 60 days. He left Los Angeles with 15 European-American men and six Delaware natives on September 5. Service with Kearny Thirty-one days later on October 6, Carson chanced to meet Kearny and his 300 dragoons at the deserted village of Valverde.Valverde had once been an important Spanish village, but was deserted by the Spaniards due to frequent Navajo and Apache raids. Located about south of Santa Fe, on the Rio Grande River, it was to be the later site of Carson's battle against Confederate Texas forces in February 1862. Kearny was under orders from the Polk Administration to subdue both New Mexico and California, and set up governments there. Learning that California was already conquered, he sent 200 of his men back to Santa Fe, and ordered Carson to guide him back to California to stabilize the situation there. Kearny sent the mail on to Washington by another courier. For the next six weeks, Lt. Carson guided Kearny and the 100 dragoons west along the Gila River over rugged terrain, arriving at the Colorado River on November 25. On some parts of the trail, mules died at a rate of almost 12 a day. By December 5, three months after leaving Los Angeles, Carson had brought Kearny's men to within of their destination San Diego. A Mexican courier was captured en route to Sonora, Mexico carrying letters to General Jose Castro that reported a Mexican revolt that had retaken California from Commodore Stockton. All the coastal cities were back under Mexican control except San Diego, where the Mexicans had Stockton pinned down and under siege. Kearny and his forces were in danger, as his men were reduced in number and exhausted from the trek from New Mexico. they ran away, bare foot, over tons of pricky pear and jagged rocks. The Battle of San Pasqual While approaching San Diego, Kearny sent a rancher ahead to notify Commodore Stockton of his presence. The rancher, Edward Stokes, returned with 39 American troops and information that several hundred Mexican dragoons under Capt. Andres Pico were camped at the indigenous village of San Pasqual, between Kearny and Stockton. Kearny decided to raid Pico to capture fresh horses, and sent out a scouting party on the night of December 5–6. The scouting party set off a barking dog in San Pasqual, and Captain Pico's troops were aroused from their sleep. Having been detected, Kearny decided to attack, and organized his troops to advance on San Pasqual. A complex battle evolved. Twenty-one Americans were killed and many more wounded: many from the long lances of the Mexican caballeros, who displayed expert horsemanship. By the end of the second day, December 7, the Americans were nearly out of food and water, low on ammunition and weak from the journey along the Gila River. They faced starvation and possible annihilation by the superior numbers of Mexican troops. Kearny ordered his men to dig in on top of a small hill. Kearny sent Carson and two other men to slip through the siege and get reinforcements. Carson, Edward Beale, and a Native American left on the night of December 8 for San Diego, away. They left their canteens to avoid noise. Because their boots also made too much noise, Carson and Beale removed them and tucked them under their belts. They lost their boots, and had to make the journey barefoot through desert, rock, and cactus. By December 10, Kearny believed all hope was gone, and planned to attempt a breakout the next morning. That night 200 American troops on fresh horses arrived, and the Mexican army dispersed in the face of the new show of strength. Kearny arrived in San Diego by December 12. His arrival contributed to the prompt reconquest of California by the American forces. Civil War and Indian Activity Following the recapture of Los Angeles in 1846, Stockton appointed Frémont as Governor of California. Frémont sent Carson to carry messages back to Washington, D.C. He stopped in St. Louis and met with Senator Thomas Benton, a prominent supporter of settling of the West and a proponent of Manifest Destiny. He had been instrumental in getting Frémont's expedition reports published by Congress. Once in Washington, Carson delivered his messages to Secretary of State James Buchanan, as well as having meetings with Secretary of War William Marcy and President James Polk. Carson was ordered to return to California with messages, receive further messages there, and bring those back yet again to Washington. By the end of the Frémont expeditions and the courier missions, Carson decided he wanted to settle down with Joséfa. In 1849 they moved to Taos to take up ranching and farming. Carson's public image as a hero had been sealed by the Frémont expedition reports of 1845. In 1849, the first of many Carson action novels appeared. The first, written by Charles Averill, bore the name Kit Carson: The Prince of the Gold Hunters. This type of western pulp fiction was known as "blood and thunders." In Averill's novel, Carson finds a kidnapped girl and rescues her, after having vowed to her distraught parents in Boston that he would scour the American West until she was found. In November 1849 Carson and Major William Grier found this book among the effects of Mrs. Ann White killed by Jicarilla Apaches after she and her daughter were captured by them weeks earlier, in an attack in which they killed her husband and others. They killed her as she tried to escape. While picking through the belongings that the Jicarilla had left in their camp, one of Major Grier's soldiers came across a book which the White family had carried with them from Missouri: the paperback novel starring Kit Carson. Later he commented on seeing it. This was the first time that Carson came in contact with his own myth. The episode of the White massacre haunted Carson's memory for many years. He once stated, "I have often thought that, as Mrs. White read the book, she prayed for my appearance, knowing that I lived nearby." His fear was that the book had given her a false hope. He wrote later, "I have much regretted the failure to save the life of so esteemed a lady." He was troubled by the implications and false image that developed around his celebrity status. Following the March 30, 1854 battle of Cieneguilla, Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke of the Second Regiment of Dragoons organized an expedition to pursue the Jicarilla. With the help of scouts led by Kit Carson, he caught and defeated them April 4, at the canyon of Ojo Caliente. On the 22nd January (1858), Kit Carson concluded a treaty of peace between the Muatche Utah, the Arapaho, and the Pueblo of Taos. They agree to support the United States in the event of any issue between them and the people of any Territory, and do what they could for the suppression of rebellion in Utah. At one time the US feared that the Muatche Utah were in alliance with the Mormons.New York Tribune, March 23, 1858, p. 1, column 6 When the American Civil War began in April 1861, Kit Carson resigned his post as federal Indian agent for northern New Mexico. He joined the New Mexico volunteer infantry being organized by Ceran St. Verain. Although New Mexico Territory officially allowed slavery, geography and economics made the institution so impractical there were few slaves within its boundaries. The territorial government and the leaders of opinion all threw their support to the Union. Overall command of Union forces in the Department of New Mexico fell to Colonel Edward R. S. Canby of the Regular Army's 19th Infantry, headquartered at Ft. Marcy in Santa Fe. Carson, with the rank of Colonel of Volunteers, commanded the third of five columns in Canby's force. Carson's command was divided into two battalions, each made up of four companies of the First New Mexico Volunteers, in all some 500 men. Early in 1862, Confederate forces in Texas under General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded New Mexico Territory. Their goal was to conquer the rich Colorado gold fields and redirect the resource from the North to the South. Advancing up the Rio Grande, Sibley's command clashed with Canby's Union force at Valverde on February 21, 1862. The day-long Battle of Valverde ended when the Confederates captured a Union battery of six guns and forced the rest of Canby's troops across the river. The Union lost 68 killed and 160 wounded. .Colonel Carson's column spent the morning on the west side of the river out of the action, but at 1 p.m., Canby ordered them to cross. Carson's battalions fought until ordered to retreat. Carson lost one man killed and one wounded. Colonel Canby had little or no confidence in the hastily recruited, untrained New Mexico volunteers, "who would not obey orders or obeyed them too late to be of any service." In his battle report, however, he did commend Carson, among other volunteer officers, for his "zeal and energy." After the battle at Valverde, Colonel Canby and most of the regular troops were ordered to the eastern front. Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers were fully occupied by "Indian troubles." Prelude to the Navajo campaign The Navajo raided Socorro, New Mexico near the end of September, 1846. General Kearny, passing nearby on his way to California after his recent conquest of Santa Fe, learned of the raid and sent a note to Col. William Doniphan, his second in command in Santa Fe. He ordered Doniphan to send a regiment of soldiers into Navajo country and secure a peace treaty with them. A detachment of 30 men made contact with the Navajo and spoke to the Navajo [[Narbona|Chief Narbona]] in mid-October, about the same time that Carson met Gen. Kearny on the trail to California. A second meeting between Chief Narbona and Col. Doniphan occurred several weeks later. Doniphan informed the Navajo that all their land now belonged to the United States, and the Navajo and New Mexicans were the "children of the United States." The Navajo signed a treaty, known as the Bear Spring treaty, on November 21, 1846. The treaty forbade the Navajo to raid or make war on the New Mexicans, but allowed the New Mexicans to make war on the Navajo if they saw fit.Locke, R., The Book of the Navajo, pp. 204-212''Blood and Thunder,'' pp. 152-54 Despite the treaty, the Navajo continued raiding in New Mexico, which they considered a category separate from war, as did the Jicarilla Apache, Mescalero Apache, Ute, Comanche, and Kiowa. On August 16, 1849 the U.S. Army began an expedition into the heart of Navajo country on an organized reconnaissance to impress the Navajo with the might of the U.S. military. They also mapped the terrain and planned forts. Col. John Washington, the military governor of New Mexico at the time, led the expedition. Forces included nearly 1000 infantry (U.S. and New Mexican volunteers), hundreds of horses and mules, a supply train, 55 Pueblo scouts, and four artillery guns. On August 29–30, 1849, Washington's expedition needed water, and began pillaging Navajo cornfields. Mounted Navajo warriors darted back and forth around Washington's troops to push them off. Washington reasoned he could pillage Navajo crops because the Navajo would have to reimburse the U.S. government for the cost of the expedition. Washington still suggested to the Navajo that in spite of the hostile situation, they and the whites could "still be friends if the Navajo came with their chiefs the next day and signed a treaty." This is what they did. The next day Chief Narbona came to "talk peace," along with several other headmen. After reaching an accord, a scuffle broke out after ta New Mexican thought he saw his stolen horse and tried to claim it from the Navajo. (The Navajo position was that the horse had passed through several owners by this time, and rightfully belonged to its Navajo owner). Washington sided with the New Mexican. Since the Navajo owner took his horse and fled the scene, Washington told the New Mexican to pick out any Navajo horse he wanted. The rest of the Navajo also left. At this, Col. Washington ordered his soldiers to fire. Seven Navajo were killed in the volleys; the rest ran and could not be caught. One of the dying was Chief Narbona, who was scalped as he lay dying by a New Mexican souvenir hunter. This massacre prompted the warlike Navajo leaders such as Manuelito to gain influence over those who were advocates of peace. Carson's Navajo campaign Raiding by native Americans had been rather constant up through 1862, and New Mexicans were becoming more outspoken in their demand that something be done. Col. Canby devised a plan for the removal of the Navajo to a distant reservation and sent his plans to his superiors in Washington D.C. But that year, Canby was promoted to general and recalled back east for other duties. His replacement as commander of the Federal District of New Mexico was Brigadier General James H. Carleton. Carleton believed that the Navajo conflict was the reason for New Mexico's "depressing backwardness." He turned to Kit Carson to help him fulfill his plans of upgrading New Mexico and advancing his own career, as Carson's national reputation had boosted the careers of a series of military commanders who had employed him. Carleton saw a way to harness the anxieties that had been stirred up New Mexico by the Confederate invasion and the still-hovering fear that the Texans might return. If the territory was already on a war footing, the whole society alert and inflamed, then why not direct all this ramped up energy toward something useful? Carleton immediately declared a state of martial law, with curfews and mandatory passports for travel, and then brought all his newly streamlined authority to bear on cleaning up the Navajo mess. With a focus that bordered on obsession, he was determined finally to make good on Kearny's old promise that the United States would "correct all this."H. Sides, Blood and Thunder, p. 325-6. Carleton believed there was gold in the Navajo country, and that they should be driven out to allow its development.H. Sides, p. 329-31. The immediate prelude to Carleton's Navajo campaign was to force the Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo. Carleton ordered Carson to kill all the men of that tribe, and say that he (Carson) had been sent to "punish them for their treachery and crimes." Carson was appalled by this brutal attitude and refused to obey it. He accepted the surrender of more than a hundred Mescalero warriors who sought refuge with him. Nonetheless, he completed his campaign in a month. When Carson learned that Carleton intended him to pursue the Navajo, he sent Carleton a letter of resignation dated February 3, 1863. Carleton refused to accept this and used the force of his personality to maintain Carson's cooperation. In language similar to his description of the Mescalero Apache, Carleton ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo, and to say to them, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject." Under Carleton's direction, Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, which coerced the Navajo to surrender. Most corn fields were used to feed his horses, and some fields were destroyed. Carleton had insisted that livestock was not to be used for personal use. Carson did not cut down any orchard trees. He was aided by other Native American tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. Carson was pleased with the work the Utes did for him, but they went home early in the campaign when told they could not confiscate Navajo booty. Carson had difficulty with New Mexico volunteers as well. Troopers deserted and officers resigned. Carson urged Carleton to accept two resignations he was forwarding, "as I do not wish to have any officer in my command who is not contented or willing to put up with as much inconvenience and privations for the success of the expedition as I undergo myself." There were no pitched battles and only a few skirmishes in the Navajo campaign. Carson rounded up and took prisoner every Navajo he could find. In January 1864, Carson sent a company into Canyon de Chelly to investigate the last Navajo stronghold, presuming them to be under the leadership of Manuelito. The Navajo surrendered because of the confiscation of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march or ride in wagons 300 miles (480 km) to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this "The Long Walk." Carson had left the Army and returned home before the march began, but some Navajo held him responsible for the events. He had promised that those who surrendered would not be harmed. An estimated 300 Navajo died along the way,Valkenburgh, p26 and many more during the next four years on the reservation. In 1868, after signing a treaty with the U.S. government, the Navajo were allowed to return to their homeland. Since then the Navajo Reservation was enlarged to its current size. Thousands of other Navajo who had been living in the wilderness returned to the Navajo homeland centered around Canyon de Chelly. Southern Plains campaign In November 1864, Carson was sent by General Carleton to deal with the Natives in western Texas. Carson and his troopers met a combined force of Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne numbering over 1,500 at the ruins of Adobe Walls. In what is known as the Battle of Adobe Walls, the Native force led by Dohäsan made several assaults on Carson's forces which were supported by two mountain howitzers. Carson inflicted heavy losses on the attacking warriors before burning the natives' camp and lodges and returning to Fort Bascom. A few days later, Colonel John M. Chivington led U.S. troops in a massacre at Sand Creek. Chivington boasted that he had surpassed Carson and would soon be known as the great Indian killer. Carson was outraged at the massacre and openly denounced Chivington's actions. The Southern Plains campaign led the Comanches to sign the Little Rock Treaty of 1865. In October 1865, General Carleton recommended that Carson be awarded the brevet rank of brigadier general, "for gallantry in the battle of Valverde, and for distinguished conduct and gallantry in the wars against the Mescalero Apaches and against the Navajo natives of New Mexico." Colorado When the Civil War ended, and the Indian Wars campaigns were in a lull, Carson was breveted a General and appointed commandant of Ft. Garland, Colorado, the heart of Ute country. Carson had many Ute friends in the area and assisted in government relations. He was interviewed there by Wm. T. Sherman. A description of that meeting is included in the Charles Burdett book Life of Kit Carson. After being mustered out of the Army, Carson took up ranching. In late 1867 he personally escorted four Ute chiefs to Washington DC to visit the President and seek additional government assistance. Soon after his return, his wife gave birth to their eighth child and died. Carson died a month later on May 23, 1868, in the presence of Dr. Tilton. His Last words were, "Goodbye, friends. Adios, compadres." Dr. Tilton's description of Carson's last days are included in J. S. C. Abbott's Life of Kit Carson. '' Carson died at age 58 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm in the surgeon's quarters in Fort Lyon, Colorado, located east of Las Animas.Abernathy CM Jr, Baumgartner R, Butler HG, Collins J, Dickinson TC, Hildebrand J, Yajko RD, Harken AH. (1986) "The management of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms in rural Colorado" (With a historical note on Kit Carson's death), ''Journal of American Medical Association. 256(5):597-600. He was buried in Taos, New Mexico, next to his wife, Josefa ("Josephine"), who died a month earlier of complications following child birth. His headstone inscription reads: "Kit Carson / Died May 23, 1868 / Aged 59 Years."The gravestone reads "59 years". mCarson's date of birth was December 24, 1809. Calculating forward from this makes his age as 58. Reputation Many general accounts of Kit Carson describe him as an outstanding honorable person. Albert Richardson, who knew him personally in the 1850s, wrote that Kit Carson was "a gentleman by instinct, upright, pure, and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans".Richardson, p. 261 Oscar Lipps also presented a positive image of Carson in 1909: "The name of Kit Carson is to this day held in reverence by all the old members of the Navajo tribe. They say he knew how to be just and considerate as well as how to fight the Indians".Lipps, p. 59 Carson's contributions to western history have been reexamined by historians, journalists and Native American activists since the 1960s. In 1968, Carson biographer Harvey L. Carter stated: :In respect to his actual exploits and his actual character, however, Carson was not overrated. If history has to single out one person from among the Mountain Men to receive the admiration of later generations, Carson is the best choice. He had far more of the good qualities and fewer of the bad qualities than anyone else in that varied lot of individuals.Carter, p. 210 Some journalists and authors during the last 25 years presented alternate views of Kit Carson. For instance, Virginia Hopkins stated in 1988 that "Kit Carson was directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indians".Hopkins, p. 40 Her viewpoint is corroborated by Tom Dunlay, who wrote in 2000 that Carson was directly responsible for the deaths of at least fifty indigenous people.Dunlay, chapter 8 Ed Quillen, publisher of Colorado Central magazine and columnist for The Denver Post, wrote that "Carson...betrayed Navajo, starved them by destroying their farms and livestock in Canyon de Chelly and then brutally marched them to the Bosque Redondo concentration camp".Denver Post, April 27, 1993 In 1970, Lawrence Kelly noted that Carleton had warned 18 Navajo chiefs that all Navajo peoples "must come in and go to the 'Bosque Redondo' where they would be fed and protected until the war was over. That unless they were willing to do this they would be considered hostile."Kelly, p. 20-21 On January 19, 2006, Marley Shebala, senior news reporter and photographer for Navajo Times, quoted the Fort Defiance Chapter of the Navajo Nation as saying, "Carson ordered his soldiers to shoot any Navajo, including women and children, on sight." This view of Carson's actions may be taken from General James Carleton’s orders to Carson on October 12, 1862, concerning the Mescalero Apaches: "All Indian men of that tribe are to be killed whenever and wherever you can find them: the women and children will not be harmed, but you will take them prisoners and feed them at Ft. Stanton until you receive other instructions".Kelly, p. 11 Sides said that Carson believed the Native Americans needed reservations as a way of physically separating and shielding them from white hostility and white culture. Carson believed most of the Indian troubles in the West were caused by "aggressions on the part of whites." He is said to have viewed the raids on white settlements as driven by desperation, "committed from absolute necessity when in a starving condition." Native American hunting grounds were disappearing as waves of white settlers filled the region.Sides, Blood and Thunder, p. 334 In 1868, at the urging of Washington and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Carson journeyed to Washington D.C. where he escorted several Ute Chiefs to meet with the President of the United States to plead for assistance to their tribe. Popular culture The legend of Kit Carson began before he died. It has continued to grow through the years through dime novels, poems, music, movies, television, and comic books. Kit Carson has been portrayed as larger than life. Novels At least 25 titles were recorded, from Kit Carson, Prince of the Gold Hunters (1849) through Kit Carson, King of Scouts (1923). A children's novel, Adaline Falling Star (2000), was written by Mary Pope Osborne, inspired by imagining the story of his daughter by his first marriage. Kit Carson is included in a number of 20th century novels and pulp magazine stories: Comanche Chaser by Dane Coolidge, On Sweet Water Trail by Sabra Conner, On to Oregon by H. W. Morrow, The Pioneers by C. R. Cooper, The Long Trail by J. Allan Dunn and Peltry by H. D. H. Smith. Kit Carson also appears in Flashman and the Redskins by George MacDonald Fraser. A character by the name of Kit Carson appears in the Time Scout novels by Robert Asprin. The Welsh novel, I Ble Aeth Haul Y Bore by Eirug Wyn, focuses on the Great Walk, and features Kit Carson as one of the main characters. In Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, the legend of Kit Carson is explored, first as compassionate friend to the natives, later as "misguided" soldier. Carson appears as a supporting character in the four "Berrybender Narratives" novels by Larry McMurtry. William Saroyan's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Time of Your Life includes a colorful character, an old man, based on the image and reputation of Kit Carson. Films *Four silent films were made featuring Kit Carson as the "star" from 1903 to 1928. *From 1933-1947 Hollywood produced three talking films: Fighting with Kit Carson, a serial (1933), revised as a single movie: The Return of Kit Carson (1947); Overland with Kit Carson (1939); and Kit Carson (1940), starring Jon Hall in the title role. *Disney released Kit Carson and the Mountain Men in 1977. Television *A fictional western television series, The Adventures of Kit Carson, starring Bill Williams and Don Diamond, ran in syndication from 1951-1955. *''Dream West'' was a TV 1986 docudrama that includes Kit Carson and John C. Fremont as characters. *The History Channel produced Carson and Cody, the Hunter Heroes in 2003. *In 2008 PBS/The American Experience produced Kit Carson, a film biography. Music The Canadian singer-songwriter, Bruce Cockburn, has a track entitled "Kit Carson" on his 1991 album Nothing But a Burning Light. Comics *In 1931 Kit Carson was the subject of J. Carrol Mansfield's daily comic strip High Lights of History, collected as a Big Little Book, Kit Carson (1933). *Avon began a series of Kit Carson comic books that lasted nine issues (1950–1955). *Classics Illustrated No 112, titled The Adventures of Kit Carson (1953), is based on John C. Abbott's 1873 book. ''Blazing the Trails West, another Classics Illustrated publication, includes a chapter on Kit Carson. *''Six Gun Heroes had two Kit Carson titles (1957 & 1958), and there was a Kit Carson No. 10 in 1963. *''Boy's Life'' includes a continuing strip story "Old Timer Tales of Kit Carson" from March 1951 to May 1953. *The 1970 Walt Disney Comics Digest included Kit Carson. *Carson strips are in several issues of Frontier Fighters and Indian Fighter. *In England and France, there was a Kit Carson comic that lasted at least 350 issues (1950s), and seven Kit Carson Annuals (1954–1960) *In the Italian comic Tex Willer, Kit Carson appears as Tex's sidekick. Museum and honors , New Mexico]] *The Kit Carson House in Taos, New Mexico, is a U.S.-designated National Historic Landmark. It is operated as a museum. *Fort Garland, located within the city of the same name in Colorado, was the location where Kit Carson briefly re-located his family while he served as commandant of a company of roughly 100 New Mexico Volunteers in 1866-1867. It includes original adobe buildings that house a reconstruction of Carson's commandant quarters. The site is a U.S.-designated National Historic Landmark, and is operated as the "Fort Garland Museum". *The Kit Carson Chapel, located in Fort Lyon, Colorado, was constructed from the stones of the surgeons' quarters where he died. It is open to the public. *In Rayado, NM, the Kit Carson Museum is operated as a living museum, staffed by nearby Philmont Scout Ranch interpreters. A partial list of places named after Carson: *Carson City, the capital of Nevada *Carson National Forest, in northern New Mexico *Carson Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains *Carson River, flowing from California to Nevada, ending in the Carson Sink *Carson Trail, a branch of the California Trail *Carson Valley, Nevada *Kit Carson, Colorado (on US 287 about south and east of Denver) *Kit Carson County, located in eastern Colorado *Kit Carson Memorial State Park, Taos, New Mexico *Kit Carson Park, Escondido, California *Kit Carson Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of southern Colorado *Kit Carson Road, Monterey, California *Kit Carson Way (Oregon Route 39) is a major expressway in Klamath Falls, Oregon *Kit Carson Way, Vallejo, CA *Fort Carson, an Army post in Colorado Springs, Colorado *Mount Kit Carson, Spokane County, Washington *Kit Carson Elementary School, Richmond, Kentucky *Kit Carson Elementary School, Albuquerque, New Mexico *Kit Carson Elementary School, Las Vegas, Nevada *Kit Carson Middle School, Sacramento, California *Kit Carson Union School District, Hanford, California *Kit Carson, California (on the east shore of Silver Lake) *Kit Carson Parking Lot, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kentucky *Kit Carson Elementary School, Blount County, TN (no longer used) Lat 35d50'59.72"N, Long 83d59'7.30"W *Kit Carson Park, Albuquerque, NM (Along side the Rio Grande) *Kit Carson, a campsite at Woodland Trails Scout Reservation, Camden, Ohio See also *List of American Civil War generals *Kit Carson Scouts Notes References *Carter, Harvey L. Dear Old Kit, University of Oklahoma Press, 1968. *Cockburn, Bruce '' Kit Carson '' song/poem on 1991 album. "(Carson) made the grade, he learned to trade in famine, pestilence and war" (3rd verse), and "Kit Carson was a hero to some with the poison at hhis place (4th verse) *Dunlay, Tom, Kit Carson and the Indians, University of Nebraska Press, 2000. *Gordon-McCutchan, R. C. (Editor) Kit Carson: Indian Fighter or Indian Killer?, University Press of Colorado, 1996. ISBN 0-87081-393-5. *Hopkins, Virginia, Pioneers of the Old West, New York, NY: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1988. ISBN 0-517-64930-6. *Kelly, Lawrence, Navajo Roundup, Pruett Publications, 1970. *Lipps, Oscar. A Little History of the Navajo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1909. *Locke, Raymond, The Book of the Navajo, Mankind Publishing Company, 2001. ISBN 0-87687-500-2. *Richardson, Albert, Beyond the Mississippi, Hartford, Conn.; American Publishing Co., 1867. *Roberts, David (2001), A newer world: Kit Carson, John C. Fremont and the claiming of the American west, New York: Touchstone ISBN 0-684-83482-0. *Sabin, Edwin L, Kit Carson Days, vol. 1 & 2, University of Nebraska Press, 1995. *Sides, Hampton, Blood and Thunder, Doubleday, 2006. ISBN 0-385-50777-1. *Simmons, Marc, Kit Carson & His Three Wives, University of New Mexico Press, 2003. *(anon., Introduction by Martin A. Link) The Navajo Treaty - 1868., KC Publications, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1968. *Valkenburgh, Richard Van '' Long Walk by Very Slim Man'', Desert Magazine, April, 1946 *Cazedessus, Camille "Lies About Kit Carson", Rendezvous Books, Jan. 2010. Further reading *Story of the Wild West and Camp-Fire Chats by Buffalo Bill (Hon. W.F. Cody.) "A Full and Complete History of the Renowned Pioneer Quartette, Boone, Crockett, Carson and Buffalo Bill.", c1888 by HS Smith, published 1889 by Standard Publishing Co., Philadelphia, PA. External links *[http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/amsw/ American Southwest, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary] *Guide to the Kit Carson Papers at The Bancroft Library *Carson Family Papers – Missouri History Museum Archives *Kit Carson Home and Museum Official Website *Find a Grave (burial site) *Narrative of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains By John Charles Frémont. Published 1845. *[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/books/review/Momaday.t.html New York Times book review of Blood and Thunder] *The Daring Adventures of Kit Carson and Fremont, Among Buffaloes, Grizzlies. By John Charles Frémont. Published 1888. *The First, and a Little-known, 1847 Biography of Kit Carson *The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself (1858) by De Witt C. Peters, at Project Gutenberg and at books.google. * * Category:Union Army generals Category:American folklore Category:Mountain men Category:Frémont expeditions Category:People from Taos County, New Mexico Category:People from Madison County, Kentucky Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:American Roman Catholics Category:1809 births Category:1868 deaths Category:Deaths from abdominal aortic aneurysm Category:People of New Mexico in the American Civil War Category:American people of the Indian Wars Category:United States Indian agents ar:كيت كارسون de:Kit Carson nv:Hastiin biʼééʼ łichiʼiiʼ es:Kit Carson fr:Kit Carson it:Kit Carson ja:キット・カーソン no:Kit Carson pl:Kit Carson pt:Kit Carson fi:Kit Carson sv:Kit Carson uk:Кіт Карсон vi:Kit Carson